Trish's Team

What a great day for a run, and guess who we saw at the 25th anniversary of Terry Fox's marathon of hope. That's Toronto Mayor David Miller in the background there with the white socks and shirt tucked into his shorts. Speaking at the High Park Terry Fox Run. I think he lives nearby. So anyone in the GTA who wants to complain or compliment him. You know the area to cruise around looking for him now.
This is the First Annual Robbinsville NJ Terry Fox Run. And this is the first place finisher. It's like watching the roadrunner. Wyle E. Coyote is on his tail. Or he's got the runs and is looking for a port-o-let FAST! Or it's the best interpretation of why'd the chicken cross the road I've ever seen.
Here's some of the junior members of Trish's team. They did 10 K believe it or not. The Timmins kids did it too, in the rain. And Nie called me after her run too. She thought it was just 5k at the Cedarbrae run site, and it turned out to be 10k. She'd never run 10k before. Way to go Nie. It could be a sick day on Monday.
This is Tresa's friend Anthony, we ran into him at the run. And he's a transplant patient survivor. 25 years ago he had a bone marrow transplant, and still going strong, dragonboating, running and living life.
Under Kieran's bib it says Team Captain.
Owen and Kitty, the other members of Trish's Team in High Park. And there's others from Winnipeg like Lori and Dan, and the east enders from Markham, Pickering/Ajax and west enders from Oakville/Mississauga and the lone wolf from NJ who helped us to make people aware and raise as much money as we did in 6 quick days.
FYI, we raised online almost $1300.00, this doesn't include the pledges offline at run sites. I was thinking that with the time we had, we'd probably only raise about 1000 bucks. But we exceeded it by 30%. Pretty good, people. Give yourselves a pat on the back.
This is where we started the Terry Fox Run. Our street about 4k from the park. But thanks to our neighbour Joe who gave us a ride in his minivan, we made it in time for Mayor Miller's speech. Otherwise we'd have made in time to watch him finish.
I didn't know they were doing this, but they gave certificates to all the runners. So we commemorated Kieran's first Terry Fox run as part of Trish's Team. You get a sticker for every year.
Nie got one too, it'll be the first and last time she does 10k. She'll look for a 5k route next year.
This was the start and finish line. BTW Joanne, there was a bbq afterwards at the high park one too. It's on the right, just off the photo.

Follow this link for more photos of the 2005 Terry Fox Run

This is from my cousin Trish:
Hi Ray & Tresa (& other members of Trish's Team)

I wish you guys all the best as you run today. I appreciate so much, your effort and determination to help me and others with cancer. This whole week has had me in awe of all the awesome support received by my family and even people I don't know. It's truly fabulous to know that there are huge hearts willing to give & to fight for this cause and other causes. It really means so much to me as it keeps my spirits up which means I continue to dig in and fight this thing! Thank you so much & have a fun, safe day out there!

Love you,

Trish

State of the Union

We were in Unionville for the afternoon. Well I was anyways. Tresa and Kieran were still up at the cottage. See this guy looking lost in a pile of empty beer bottles. Well it's his place. His and his wife Bev and their two kids.
If you add up all the empty beer bottles you'll know why he wears a dark shirt. It's slimming. Juan couldn't make it. He had to go to Hamilton and Cambridge that day.
This is Cheetah from the last blog. He's also loonie face. The guy sprained his ankle. I think he did it running away from committment. Then went out and splurged on some really expensive orthotics. You can see them there below his foot.
Click for more photos of everyone, including the non-stop talker a.k.a. the hypertosis dude (sweating disorder) and Harry Potter and his towel shirt.

Old fogies go to a trendy club

The title was suggested by Antonio. aka Juan/Fez. We hooked up with Ray and Kim at the Century Room on King St. It felt like a century since we had been out to a club.
We arrived there first and saw recognized Kim and Ray walking up the street. I was trying to figure out what it resembled, then it hit me. It was like an animal trainer and her chimp, you know Jane and Cheetah. But Ray apparently twisted his ankle. I don't know how. But I think it involved broken furniture and swinging off the chandelier in his bedroom.
So this is what old fogies drink. This is how Cheetah deals with the pain and how we feel all young again. Plus drink enough of this and the prices don't hurt as much. There's 3 digits on every one of those items on that menu.
It was so loud, we had to speak to each other in sign language. I don't see anything shiny on that finger. I think that's what she was signing. Or she caught Juan's eyes drifting. "Wait I think I know that person."
Paul was focusing on something else. Milk and cookies. And tuning into Tokyo.
I gotta say that this place was a market. Juan and I were talking about how nice it is to be married. No acting, no images to portray, we can just be ourselves. Real people. Real debts. Broke too.
Derrick breaks out the bucks. Can you hear the velcro 'rrrrrip!' Someone should tell him to shave his hands before he goes out to a club. But it's dark so it just looks like shadows anyways. I think that velcro wallet is a century old.

Harry Potter and the Non-stop Talker

Derrick thinks he's a knock off of Harry Potter. I think he got bumped in the head way too hard. Harry Potter is a kid. Derrick is like middle-aged.
So here we are, Harry Potter and the Non-stop Talker.

Look it's Dobby. Sometimes he becomes Gollum.

Harry tries to get Dobby off the bed. Stop Dobby, stop! Go and get me some Guinness.

The Non-stop Talker is going on and on and on. Hermione can't get in a word, she tries but her tongue has become twisted. Kreacher is hypnotized and his eyes are closing. Juan doesn't understand english so he's just being polite and looking interested.

We all can't believe he hasn't stopped talking. So we just try to enjoy the beautiful day and ignore him.

Harry Potter and his nice socks and sandals. He thinks that it will ward off evil incantations and curses from the Non-stop Talker. But really, it just looks odd.

Even Kieran can't believe he hasn't stopped talking.

While the Non-stop Talker goes on and on, Ginny and Hermione take a break and hit the dessert table.

Even Juan Valdez from Colombia took a break from picking coffee beans and enjoyed a cup of Tim Horton's coffee.
"Must be Canadian, EH!"

Finally the Non-stop Talker takes a short break.
Man his feet stink.
Click here for more photos

What happened to Tama Teen?

Trish's got like 5 Tamagatchi's and she named them after family and friends. So not knowing anything about these toys, except that I brought one for my niece from the UK for her birthday, I tried it out. So it's basically an electronic pet. You feed it, play with it, train and discipline it, and even turn the lights off when it sleeps. If it gets sick you take it to the doctor. Oh and if it poops you scoop it up.

It's all in the the toy. 3 buttons.

Anyways. This one is Tama Teen. It's training level was only 2 bars so I was trying to train it. But in order to train it Trish said I had to feed it. But it's hunger levels were full and happy levels were almost full. So I fed it to get to do run hurdles or dance, etc. I had a hard time training it so I kept doing it. By the time I left, the training levels had not changed.

So Trish sent me this recent photo of the screen with Dan's Treo that fell in the pool. Usually there's some little animal on the screen moving around. But now there's some other thing on the screen that doesn't do anything. She said I must have trained it so much it quit.

Visiting Hours

Man do my eyes look buggy. Must be the reason why my haircut is so bad. We went to Winnipeg to visit our cousin Trish. She'd been couped up in the hospital for a bit and since she's always come to T.O. to visit us. It's about time we repaid the favour. Plus she's never seen Kieran. So this was his chance to meet his tita Trish. He was pretty good, hardly complained. Only wanted deh-deh. I just got an email from her and she said she'd be home after the weekend.
I'd always promised that we'd come to Winnipeg. And finally we did. It's really flat. A plane can land anywhere. But surprisingly everything is 20 minutes away according to Tita Rit.
This is uncle Les. He's got more lives than three cats. He's got another set of eyes underneath those dark glasses.
When Uncle Les and tita Rit took us to the cottage we'd go for loooong walks. Actually it wasn't that long.
Who needs to go tubing when you can just fall off the back of the boat. Or John just had a fish jump up his shorts.
This is tita Rit. Kieran marked his territory right away.Uncle Les took us for a boat ride around Deception Bay and beyond.
Seems like someone was scared of the water.

For all the folks that don't read what I write you're missing out on all the extra photos that I upload. I put in links here and there.
I can't be more obvious than: click here for more photos
There's pics of Chris waterskiing underwater. Well his head was underwater. And he was only skiing for as long as his lungs had oxygen. And you'll see Liam imititating one of those dead chickens or ducks hanging in the restaurants in Chinatown. Click on the link and you can see for yourself.
The only photo I wish I had was the one where Liam ran right into the pool table at full speed. But I do have the after photo. Chris is icing his skull. This kid is like Bonk.
Photo of the day:
"Why'd you bring me on this boat! And give me deh-deh NOW!" said Liam.

Go west young man

Well it's not that far west. More like central Canada. But it's west of Ontario.
We were headed for Winnipeg to visit our aunt, uncle and cousin's (Trish and Jason and their families). It's the first time I've ever been there. And Kieran is heading there in his first year of life outside the womb. They haven't seen him yet so he's making his way around. In a matter of two weeks this kid's logged a lot of kilometers (miles for Chris).
Well he was free, even though he had a seat of his own. But don't flush the toilet while Kieran is in the lavatory. It freaks him out and scared him. Not right away but the lower lip started to quiver and he started to cry.
If you're wondering that's not a big blue bear. That's John in the middle of the backyard. He came on our flight out to Winnipeg. But he headed back home on Monday. Too bad he missed all the great cooking Tita Rit made.
Uncle Les took us around the neighbourhood and showed us the 10,000 sqft home of the 30 year old founders of the internet Pharmacy that's caused so much trouble in the US. Good for them.
But their house is for sale. Apparently they couldn't make their marriage as successful as their internet venture.
Tita Rit and Uncle Les took us to the cottage which happened to be in Ontario. We travelled all the way to Manitoba by plane only to get taken back home by car.

This is Deception Lake. No really it's for real. No fake. I took the picture from the dock. It's quite a bit bigger than Lake Wenona up in Haliburton where Tresa's parents' cottage is. Looks pretty peaceful eh? The water was freezing. When Teen was on the inner tube she was screaming and you could hear her across the lake and Uncle Les could hear her over the roar of the boat motor.
This was the old cottage. We slept in the new one behind it.

Run for the border

We tried doing what my brother and sister-in-law do when they do long drives with their kids. They drive overnight. When we headed down to NJ we left at 10:30 am and had to take many breaks because of Kieran. When we drove home we thought we'd leave later so that we drive while he slept. It was good. Less cars, less breaks, but less visibility (the US road signs aren't as reflective as the Canadian ones) and fear of some animal jumping across the road. And it took us just under 10 hrs. And all it took was a coke, ginger ale, a small coffee and a red bull. Plus some caramel popcorn, Mike & Ikes, pringles, and tostitos chips.

I was getting sick of the chips but I needed to munch on stuff to keep me awake. For some reason when I'm driving and get drowsy, all I need is a bag of chips or carrots just to munch on, and it takes the drowsiness away.

We made the Cornwall border in about 6.5 hrs. And they didn't even check our passports. They're so nice on the Canadian side. The US side is a different matter. I got interrogated on our way down.

I just gotta say, NY state needs to put more reflective signs and markers on their roads. Pennsylvania was pretty good. But once we crossed into NY state. I could barely see where the road was bending. It was stressing me out.

I was so happy when we got back into Ontario. Maybe it's because I know it's the home stretch. I was trying to get Tresa to nap, so I could drive without her freaking out whenever she saw break lights in front of me, but she couldn't or wouldn't or was just wanting to make sure I was okay.

On our way home though we saw an SUV that had rolled over. I think the person fell asleep. In NY state there was a car that was weaving all over the road. That guy was on the verge of rolling over, and in that section of I-81 the road shoulders end up becoming cliffs.

We made it home safe. I'm heading to bed. Of course Kieran is up and wide awake.